If somebody looked out of the window right now, they would see the starry sky and go back to sleep.

But Tsune kept her focus on yesterday's late message from Hem. The text blurred after every blink but she kept rereading. It was the only way to convince herself to get up.

"Please come before support classes start. Den told us that all weapons must be installed for the first combat test, but I can't access your parts inventory without your direct permission."

If she sent back an excuse, there would be no harm done, right? After all, the first combat tests involved only basic melee attacks. Last she checked, her wolf was ready to hit some dummies with its claws. But even if nobody but her knew that she lied, it was still one too many. Especially if the trade was a couple of hours of sleep versus potential trouble for the whole team.

'Ah, I want to sleep more.'

Tsune rose from the bed and stretched her arms. It was time for a forced awakening in the shower.

-

'Hey, dear daughter of mine.'

When her mother used an uncharacteristically sweet tone, Tsune's forgot about her yawn. Lady Red looked towards the photos on the kitchen wall. If she had to guess, it was the the team one.

'Yes, mother?'

'What do you think about your team?'

Moving the food around on the breakfast plate to mix the less tasty, but *healthy*, pieces with others, she slowly replied.

'Its fine. They are nice people and I think I can work with them.'

'That's not exactly what I meant. The boys, Tsune, what do you think about the boys?'

"I knew it. Mother, why do you insist."

With a mental groan, she took the big healthy slice. Its sour taste masked the reason behind the sour expression.

'Well, they are okay, I guess? The hazel haired is Den, the one on the right is Eider and Hem is on the left.'

'Anything else?'

Excited that she finally got her daughter to talk, Lady Red's eyes all but glowed with interest.

'Well, Eider pilots an eagle mech, its cool watching it fly. Den pilots a tank, but its not as interesting. Hem has a wolf and usually runs slow.'

'Boriiiing. Don't be like your father when he was young. Whenever I wanted him to be expressive, he always talked about non personal things.'

With a shallow sigh that faked disappointment, the older woman continued.

'I just want to know about you and people you could share years of your life with. The other girl in the photo is smiling but not you.

They never come to visit and the only time you didn't go straight home after lessons was also the time you looked annoyed. And after the yesterday's message you woke up so early.'

'Mother, its fine. They are nice people. And as for the reason I don't go anywhere with them... Well, I never did that before.'

Honestly, Tsune wasn't against discussing her team, or her mech with her parents. But if she said something she didn't mean to, it could lead to a misunderstanding. Her mother might even try to help her social life.

And unwanted gifts were the worst kind, unpleasant to receive and hard to get rid of.

-

The weather outside was chilly and the girl held the fabric of her warm uniform shirt closer to the body. The end of second month of autumn usually wasn't this cold. But since the sun was yet to rise, she shivered with every gust.

As soon as she walked into a stream of warm air that rose through the tunnel, she was suddenly assaulted with an overwhelming urge to yawn.

Dropping the bag with the assistant device as she tried to contain the relaxed reaction, the girl missed that Mapo started to fly again. It rose to her hands and poked them with a side of the bag.

'Oh, fine. Just behave yourself.'

Finally pushing the urge to take a nap in the flow of warm air, Tsune let the metal sphere out.

Accompanied by it at around hip level, she went out of the tunnel. And almost immediately she saw her target, Hem, who stood before several human sized machines.

'Hey, so how do I give you that permission?'

The boy turned around and the blonde couldn't help but smirk seeing his blushing face. But soon her expression trailed off as she realized the meaning behind it.

'You already have it?'

'Yes, I sent a message to Den to warn him about this and he immediately gave it to me by himself. A hour ago! I didn't know he could do it, honest!'

Eider's voice came from above the eagle's wing to support him.

'Usually you can't. But Den really wants to have the perfect team experience, so he asked for it from school. Still surprises me he got through with that.'

Slamming something close on the wing surface, he threw the bag to the ground and climbed down to join them.

-

'Wait, so these are my parts?'

Hem stepped closer and showed her the tablet with a program that was similar to the one she used to customize her VR Gunner. On the screen was a wolf model that had a collar made from tractor beam pods and its maw augmented with the ionizer and the spear's engine.

'Sorry if I went too far, but I just thought that since you liked my control scheme, I could do this too. But I'll gladly remake it if you want.'

"Aren't you just a bundle of joy this early. Well, whatever, if it gives me my sleep back."

Freed from her task, the girl felt another wave of sleepiness coming. Stifling a yawn, she asked.

'Will you need anything in my cabin? I want to take a beauty sleep.'

'No, the controls are universal. I can move the legs and head from here. And Eider can help me too.'

The boy's hands momentarily wavered, as if he wanted to hide them, but couldn't let the tablet go. Then with a press of a button, a platform looking drone silently rose from the hangar's corner.

'And we have an advanced installing device. There's only one, but Den said that there was no need to buy a lot of cheap ones if we'll end up selling them anyway.'

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

'Then do whatever you need.'

Preventing another yawn, she went to the wolf's cabin. And once there, her warm uniform top made for a decent cover.

-

'Hey, wake up.'

In response the blonde tucked in her makeshift cover closer, so the voice got louder.

'The bell already went off!'

'Oh!'

Throwing the shirt away, the girl sat straight in the chair. The console screen showed both the collar and maw enhancements on the wolf's wireframe model. But without time to properly read the text, she ignored it for now.

The overlay map showed her new destination. Instead of running an obstacle race, the new phase of training was in the central field. And unlike before, her wolf was alone.

Turning to the team screen, she saw Hem who was still in the hangar, according to the background lighting.

'Why am I alone here?'

'Combat tests are usually solo, because they are dangerous. Or maybe they're like me, still have obstacle race laps to run.'

'Thanks,'

Not sure if the last was a compliment or a snide comment, aimed at how she never read about training phases to keep it interesting, the blonde returned to her target.

It was a tall pillar painted as wood with multiple poles protruding from its surface.

Suddenly remembering something, she looked towards the public entrance to the training grounds and its annoying guard. The memory was of her looking out of that window at a cobra mech. Who was also alone in the field and attacking a similar target.

"Hard to believe that it was just a year ago. Anyway, that robot showed its movement then switched to melee, right?"

Moving the joystick, the wolf went for a walk around the field. The walking gradually became running that turned into a gliding run that looked more like forward jumps than regular movement.

When Tsune decided that her concentration was high enough not to make a mistake, the robot turned toward the target. By touching the forward leg on the wireframe, she selected it as a weapon. Then sharply pushed the other joystick to the side as the gliding jump carried the wolf past the dummy.

With a loud crack, one of the dummy's sticks was torn from its socket by a claw swipe. But it wasn't over, as inclination of the movement control made the wolf land on its other front paw first.

Using it as anchor, she helped inertia to turn around the wolf and immediately made a full power forward jump. And instantly regretted it, as her body grew so heavy from acceleration she all but missed the timing for the next swipe.

Accompanied by another loud breaking sound, the girl slowed down and let go of the controls. She needed time for her rapidly beating heart to recover.

-

The rest of the scheduled time seemed too short from her perspective, as the pilot spent it much calmer. Instead of quick maneuvers, she just parked the wolf near the target.

But as it bit off, chewed off and clawed off the dummy's poles, she started to feel guilty about not putting up a show.

"If any junior students are watching me, I'm sorry for being boring."

-

Before leaving the training grounds and allowing other robots to take over, the blonde gave a look to the cranes for combination training. Without work they looked like weird ceiling accesories.

"I wonder what part of the body my wolf would become? Maybe hands so you could bite the enemy while you punch."

"Well, it wouldn't unexpected if it was like centaur but on top of two wolfs. Or one bigger one."

Slightly rolling her eyes at the thought of a shared command cockpit, she caught Mapo. It refused to follow her out of the wolf so she just stuffed it into the bag again.

-

The time passed in a flash. And during a sunny winter morning, Tsune was in her wolf, making the final preparations. Moving Mapo out of way, she ran through the controls. Movement, weapon select screen, attack movement, all were fine.

-Mapo is ready-

Even her assistant device seemed to be full of energy this morning.

-Exam start-

And as to support the energetic flow, the exam bell rang throughout the dome, signaling for her to start her combat exam.

The wolf started slow. It walked past the first dummy target and swiped at it, leaving deep claw marks. During the next lap it went for a bite. And this time, Tsune pressed the red button that jumpstarted the former spear engine with a roaring sound.

The lightning arcs shot out of the wolf's teeth, as they were sheathed in electricity. With the simple metal turned into powered blades, they went through the deceptively tough material like a hot knife through butter. And then the piece in the wolf's mouth was burned to ash.

"Now, what to do next."

The girl could continue to repeat the same moves, simply increasing the running speed every time. But she couldn't help but feel that something was lacking.

If she were to put it into words, this wasn't something she would remember later.

-Mapo is ready-

'And what are you ready for?'

-Mapo is ready for your command-

Tsune drummed a short tune with her fingers as she thought about it. The root of this unsettling feeling was most likely Blade and his over the top passion. And even though the assistant devices simply combined and filtered the commands, her device was special.

"That guy is infectious."

'Okay, show me what you can do. Destroy the target.'

-Command accepted.-

Suddenly, the controls started to move on the own. The wolf turned around and smoothly accelerated into a full run to gain distance.

Then it turned and began to run past its objective, swiping at its foundation. One lap, two ,three.

Finally, when the pole was barely upright, the wolf stopped and launched the tractor beam pods from its collar.

The anchors landed around the target, but instead of securing it to the ground, they tore it out.

The pilot was about to interfere, but it was too late. Following a deafening roar, a particle beam fired from the glowing wolf maw and smashed into the hovering pillar.

-Target destroyed. Weapon power depleted.-

Looking at the avalanche of pieces and rubble that fell out of the cratered wall, the pilot could only shake her head. Mapo exceeded even the furthest expectations she had of her father's present. But at least this part of the wall wasn't taken by a hangar.